


Not Alone

by confusedPaladin



Category: AI: The Somnium Files (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Post-True Route, date more like DADte amirite, does this take place in the same continuity as my first ai fic? you decide, listen i just want mizuki to have at least one parent whos there for her
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-02
Updated: 2019-10-02
Packaged: 2020-11-10 19:50:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20857322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/confusedPaladin/pseuds/confusedPaladin
Summary: "Hey," Date said, walking over from the light switch, "It's okay, you're safe.  Mind if I sit?" he asked, gesturing next to Mizuki on the bed.She shook her head.  "I'm fine," she lied, "I don't need your help."  She turned away from Date.  "Go back to bed."





	Not Alone

Mizuki woke up screaming, clutching her leg. A face lurked in the darkness, coming closer. When it came into full view, Mizuki cut her scream short on a sudden, choking sob. Saito's laughter echoed in her ears as she threw a wild punch. Her fist connected and she heard a grunt as the person stumbled back. Still panicked, she scrambled backwards until she hit the wall. The lights flicked on and Mizuki blinked.

"Hey," Date said, walking over from the light switch, "It's okay, you're safe." He wiped away the blood from his busted lip and Mizuki felt a pang of guilt. "Mind if I sit?" he asked, gesturing next to her on the bed.

Mizuki shook her head. "I'm fine," she lied, "I don't need your help." She turned away from Date. "Go back to bed."

"Okay," he said, but didn't move.

Mizuki ignored him and pulled the bedsheets over her head. After a few moments, she heard Date walk away. The lights switched off and she heard him lie back down on the couch. She focused on the rhythm of his breathing as he fell asleep.

Mizuki's eyes opened, and she found herself once again in the Kabasaki chemical plant, facing a set of large double doors. She pushed them open with shaking, sweaty hands. Date stood in the center of the dark room, his messy, pale blond bangs covering his eyes.

"Date!" she shouted, relieved to find a comforting face. A knot in her stomach untied itself as she ran to him.

Saito looked up, reached into his coat, and leveled his gun at Mizuki, who stopped in her tracks. Shoko and Renju both stepped out of the shadows behind her, blood dripping down from each of their left eyes.

Mizuki gasped, anger and fear welling up inside her.

"What's wrong, Mizuki?" Saito asked, leering at her with Date's face. "Don't you want to see your Mom and Daddy again?" He gestured to her parents with the gun. Shoko and Renju both stood there, still as corpses.

Mizuki tried to speak, but couldn't find her voice. Saito laughed.

"Speechless, I see!" he taunted. "Let's keep you that way, then!" He pointed his gun at her again. "It's time to start the fireworks!"

The gun fired, and white-hot fire exploded in Mizuki's vision.

She shot up in bed. The sound of her pulse hammered in her ears. She looked around the dim room, focusing on the familiar objects until her vision adjusted and finally setting her gaze on Date, who was lying on the couch and fast asleep. She stared at his scruffy, perpetual stubble, his dark hair that hung wildly over his face, and his one eye that somehow still looked sad while he slept. All of the things about him that were different after he got his body back.

Mizuki looked away. Saito had ruined everything. She could walk on her own again, but her leg still constantly ached. Date wasn't the same familiar face he had always been. That face was the same one that had shot her and taken her parents from her.

She tried to fight back tears but she still found herself crying into her pillow, trying desperately to not wake Date. Several long minutes later, when she calmed her heaving breaths, she slowly climbed out of bed and walked to the couch.

Date opened his eye as Mizuki got closer, the eyepatch over his left eye another reminder of the damage Saito had done. "Mizuki," he asked, still half asleep, "What's wrong?"

"I don't wanna be alone right now," she mumbled, staring at the floor. "I can't sleep."

Date sat up. He patted the cushion next to him and Mizuki sat down, immediately leaning into his shoulder.

"I'm sorry, Mizuki," he said as he put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer. Mizuki felt his gravelly voice vibrating through his body. "It's my fault you got mixed up in all this. Saito hurt you because he knew it was the fastest way to hurt me."

Mizuki wanted to blame Date, to yell and scream and cry, to tell him that it was all his fault. Instead, she wrapped her arms around Date's chest, tears welling up in her eyes.

"I hate that things are different now. I know things will never be the same again and I hate it!" she shouted, squeezing Date tighter. She buried her face into Date's shirt. "I just want this to be over," she said, her voice muffled.

"Hey now, it is over," Date said, stroking Mizuki's hair. "Saito can't hurt you anymore. Things will be okay, we just gotta get used to the way things are now."

After a few moments, Mizuki broke the hug. The pair sat in silence for a while.

"What's it like to Psync with someone?" Mizuki asked, lacing her fingers together and staring at them.

"What?"

Mizuki looked up at Date. "I mean, what's it like to be in someone else's head? You tried to help me after Mom died and I couldn't talk. Maybe if you Psynced with me, you could cure my nightmares."

Date cocked his head to the side, thinking. "Maybe," he said. "It might not be so simple. Plus, I would experience everything that happened in your dream. If you don't want to talk about your nightmares, are you sure you want me to see them?"

Mizuki kicked at the air, letting her feet bounce against the couch as they fell. "I don't know," she said, the image of Date becoming Saito in her dream repeating in her head. "We should talk about this in the morning, I'm really tired."

She stood up from the couch. Date laid back down and mumbled a good night. After a moment, she turned around and sat down on the couch again. She swung her legs up so she was lying next to Date, who opened his eye again.

"Mizuki?" he asked, "I thought you were going to bed."

"Don't say something stupid and ruin this moment, Date," Mizuki said with a familiar level of venom in her voice. She wrapped her hands around his neck to avoid falling off the couch. "I said earlier that I didn't want to be alone."

Without a word, Date shifted to give her more room. Date fell asleep first and Mizuki followed soon after, curled up against him and untroubled by nightmares for the rest of the night.


End file.
